Thursday, September 27, 2007

Time Flies By

It has been, as you note, a time since I have blogged. Miles has been added to an already well used odemeter. Roads has been traversed and people have been helped. Oh yes, I am a people helper, a servant to those who pay my way, to those who are responsible for that gift that oh so faithfully arrives each and every month. Yet not a gift in some sense but rather a compensation for labor, well not really labor, but rather for those long hours spent on the highways and byways across middle America. Not to mention my immense calling to teach and preach which requires hours of prep time. If you are going to do something, do it well or get the heck out of town, amd how I completely enjoy being able to share from God's Word, enriching, I pray, the lives of those within the sound of my voice. How blessed I am to be able to be used by my Lord in that way. And then have I mentioned the joy of having my Daughter and son in law living with us? along with those two little angels, little sweetpeas that go along with the group. Ah yes, being a papa does have it's privileges.

Monday, September 17, 2007

That is what I live for

As I sat chewing on my last piece of pizza with my family, less Patty, and the conversation turned to topics of whatever, I soon found myself in a situation of confusion. now if you know my Daughter that in itself could explain my condition. However, it was not just my dear daughter alone that brought about the state of mind in which I was finding myself far behind and without a clue as to what was the main arena of thought. The little darling of 7 years known by all as Isabelle, announced after my statement of, "I am confused", "that is what I live for". I could not believe my ears, and yet there it was. Oh am I in trouble now!

Alone

It is Monday morning and I wake sprawled across the queen bed, a strange void exists, both between the sheets and in my heart, the love of my life is not there. Sunday saw her making a journey to the land of the Windy City to visit with her 98 year old mother who had fallen and was, at this point confined to a bed in Lutheran General Hospital with a very badly bruised knee. The extent of damage as yet to be assessed by the medical staff and so my dearly beloved will spend some time there of determined length. Sunday Evening was my turn to bring the message at church, which for whatever reasons seems to drain any energy I have and what is left of the remainder of the evening I can only veg out with a movie, them crawl between the sheets and rest my weary brain. The absence of my dear wife made the last of that experience the least pleasant of the day. Alone, not just physically, but mentally and spiritually is something I do not enjoy, oh right I have the need to escape to my space, from time to time, but not having her with me, around me, and being around her and with her, brings feelings I find myself being uncomfortable with. I know and agree she must take this time to share in the hours with her mother and sister, to be a part of a family which has but one of the "old ones" left, the last of a kind, Mamie. Her spirits are high, her knee is not, she still in good health, but we still wait to hear the story regarding what will happen with her ability to move about. So waiting and waiting we will, apart we will wait, and surely I will look forward to Patty making her way back to me.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Done at Last



Well, I am done, sort of, at last, with this Paper project. Isabelle was actually able to help with putting down the grass, which needs mowing, and the placement of many of the bushes, which need trimming, her little fingers were extremely helpful in placing the foliage in the planters on the balconies. I was able to restrain myself from being too particular about the grass and bushes.



The mailman, sorry it is a man, not just a person has just delivered the mail. and watch out if you drive by, those joggers do not have reflective shoes

Some of the family are watching for the front runners for the marathon from one of the porches and the Mr. is getting ready to have the chauffeur take him to the airport, an important business meeting, has to support the electric bill for this house somehow.

Who is that lady on the driveway? I sure hope it is not the Avon calling,

And if you didn't notice way up on the top porch some guy has his binoculars, hoping he is looking for humming birds, where is the feeder anyway?
Must be too small to notice.

So, I did enjoy, to some degree this project, although it was frustrating at times, the directions were not clear on many issues, but being a man, who asks directions anyway? For this I had to, and then even asking directions, I was lost some of the time, just not clear, and it did not turn out as I had hoped it would, but it is paper, and working with paper glue, yuck! score, cut, fold, assembly and attach, over and over again. I sure wish Isabelle could have been more into this, but she is only 7 and me being 63, yuck! again! her attention span for such tiny detail is a trifle shorter then mine. Never the less, the people are her project and the grass, so here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Signs of the Times

Brisk air, the sound of a golf cart and the click of the ball as my driver makes solid contact, Ah the fulfillment as that little white orb sails high and over the mowed green grass finding its way to a pleasant place in the middle of the fairway. Life just doesn't get much better. My second shot is but an 8 iron to the green, and with the grace of a moose I swing and up, up and away the ball once again slowly descends within yards of the ever elusive hole, at times I wonder if I should join the seniors tour, then I remember that was one good, one compared to so many not so good ones. My friend comments, you really hit a nice iron shoot, I am in awe as this is one of his good days, he remembers I am there, and is aware of my play. It it good to have him with me even if it is for one day, for the next time, he may not be so aware. He smiles, and talks about not hitting the ball the way he should. Life is good this day, the weather is 76 and the sun peaks from behind a cloud here and there, the trees have not begun to turn yet, but the sense of the pending fairways filled with brown, orange and red, doing they best to hide the ball, is just around the corner. Even without his hearing aids he responds to my questions, my voice finds a way to his inner ear, he is not the most talkative person, even before, and now even less, at times he just stares into space, not knowing where his ball even went. He knows what he has, and told me once that he was a bit anxious about what will happen. I told him we would play as long as he could, he smiled, that is good. I like when he smiles, his life is fading away from him and he cannot stop it. But we will play, men will be boys and the game will go on as long as it can.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Me and Frank Lloyd Wright Photos





Well, Sarah was at it with the camera and made these images of the HO Scale, that is 1/87 of an inch equal a foot. To give you a real sense of this, a little 6 foot tall person would be just a hair over 3/4 of an inch, small to say the least, and this house is for those size people. so here are the photos.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Me and Frank Lloyd Wright

Well you know how Dads think at times about how neat it would be to get my little daughter something, Jason, my son-in-law is absolutely no expectation. Except the little something was an HO Scale replica of the Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright. He thought is was a punch out thing that required a simple snap in place parts things, well Isabelle upon seeing it was an HO scale building, knew right away that she just had to wait until they moved from Virginia to Ohio so that Papa could help her with it. Papa is more then helping as it is a very detailed cut with a very shape xacto knife, very small, very many pieces that require very small amounts of exactly placed glue to fit exactly in certain places in precisely certain order, following not so exactly detailed instructions. I will include pictures of this endeavor for your viewing pleasure at another time. I have been very occupied with this endeavor and am hoping to finish so Isabelle may enjoy the part she has been waiting for, the placement of little HO Scale people and cars and trees and grass and bushes and the like all around the house and grounds. We have been also working on a repair of the HO Scale Noah's Custom Boat shop(no job too big) for my layout. This building was damaged by a 1x4 piece of wood in the truck during our move to Ohio almost 6 years ago. I have just begun repairs when Isabelle came up with the idea of no fixing all the damaged wood side of the building but rather have my little HO Scale people working on the repair, thus leaving most of the damage, Brilliant! my granddaughter, a chip off the old block! OH! where have I heard that before?
So we have been making some scaffolding for the little people to work on and Isabelle has been finding all the little people from the box full that I have spent hours painting. She has the greatest time placing these people around places that look like they are doing the work. She is patiently waiting for the new trees to add to the scene and reminds me that some of the shoreline rocks need filling in. But time keeps marching on and things get slowly done, as I must admit I have to work once and awhile.
But what a joy to have her here with me, to be so blessed to be able to spend this time with such a precious lttle soul.